COTTON MaTHER

Wild Kingdom 8/10

Since reforming Cotton Mather, Robert Harrison has pursued the oblique strategy of writing a song based on each of the I Ching’s 64 hexagrams. Second instalment Wild Kingdom opens pointedly with “The Cotton Mather Pledge”, a wry slice of autobiography containing the admission “I don’t know how to quit… I only want a hit” amid a power-chord tornado. The LP hurtles along with a calibrated thrum, intricately arranged, cerebral rockers like “Better Than A Hit” and “I Volunteer” calling to mind the Attractions backing John Lennon. Addictive stuff – and Harrison isn’t even halfway through the hexagrams.